Bambooboat saying hello!

[Bambooboat]

Hi Cruising Forum,

After a pretty long time reading and absorbing the fountain of knowledge found in Cruisers Forum my time has come to say hello and introduce myself and the family.

The short version: We are a family of 4 (2 boys 8 and 10yrs old), dad (myself) has some sailing experience (about 8000 nm), mom very little. We live in Australia and plan to take a sabbatical year to cruise the caribbean end of 2018. Looking to buy boat in the caribbean and resell it there at the end of the adventure. Many questions to ask the forum!

The longer version for anyone interested:

I grew up around boats (dad’s motor boat), had my own Sunfish as a youngster, windsurfed, raced on keelboats during college years and beyond, then became Skipper by proxy of dad’s 1973 Columbia 43 for about 15 years. I reckon I’ve got 5000~8000 nm sailing experience around the coast of Venezuela and nearby islands, mostly day and overnight passages of around 80 nm with a dozen around 100 to 200 nm. Not a complete newbie but I make no claims to vast experience. My wife shared a few of the last voyages as a passenger but does not really have much experience yet. We have 2 boys 8 and 10 years old who have started to enjoy learning to sail and we sail all together on our Hobie Cat 16.

We live in Australia and are looking to spend a sabbatical year in the Caribbean. Plan is buy a boat, enjoy for 1 year (give or take a few months), sell the boat and return to land.

We are looking at casting off around the end of this year 2018, dependent mostly on finding the boat. I have many questions and we have some fears! Purchasing a boat from the opposite side of the world will entail some risks, as will the whole adventure. But we’re here to do this, despite the fears.

For a frame of reference, as a family we lean more towards adventure and “roughing it” than comfort and luxury; this is by principle and what makes us tick but also driven by financial constraints. So it’s not that we wouldn’t like a night in a 5 star hotel but… We can still happily squeeze in a small dome tent and travel the country in a Mazda3. Don’t need the motorhome and we get by without a SUV 4 wheel drive. I’d say we’re high on the the adventurous scale and quite adaptable

Sorry if I’ve gone into too much detail before even asking the first question! I’m trying to give context to help answer some questions which I hope to post in separate and appropriate threads.

For now, thank you for the great community and valuable wisdom you have all created and willfully share on this forum. It has already been wonderful being on board!

[Dsanduril]

Welcome to CF!

You don't say what kind of budget you have for boat purchase, so that will make it hard to give recommendations on particular vessels.

One place to look is boats for sale in Trinidad at the southeast end of the Caribbean. It's far enough south for most insurance companies to consider it out of the hurricane zone so a fair number of sailors put up their boats for the summer, then decide not to continue. If you find a good boat there it puts you in a great position for sailing the Windwards come November - no long passages at the start of your adventure.

[GordMay]

Greetings and welcome aboard the CF, Bambooboat.

[Bambooboat]

Thank you GordMay for your warm welcome. And thank you Dsanduril for your reply. I've posted a second post with more detail regarding our boat selection criteria. Currently I am open to considering boats anywhere in the Caribe, but T&T and south shores would certainly be a good starting point!

[Don C L]

Welcome aboard Bambooboat! We are a family of four (daughter 12 and son 7) having a lot of fun on our little boat too. Good luck!